Sunday, April 30, 2017

New York Times Opinion By Bill McKibben: Trumpism Eternal?

The New York Times, otherwise known as “The Truth,” recently
published an op-ed by Bill McKibben, in which McKibben soberly and rationally
considered the possible effects of President Trump’s policies on global
warming.

He
began by stating: “President Trump’s environmental onslaught will have
immediate, dangerous effects…” His “environmental onslaught?” He is considering backing away from some of the more
economically devastating new regulations on energy use and production, yes…and
maybe easing a punitive restriction or two on mining and coal companies. Mr.
McKibben, however, makes it sound like Trump’s personally spewing agent orange
into Central Park and plowing down the cherry trees around the Reflecting Pool…
that he thinks could be put to better use housing nuclear waste or raw sewage.
One congers up an image of a crazed president Trump, in the arctic, frantically
whacking baby seals over the head with a nine-iron while shouting, “Melt, damn
it! Melt!” at the remaining ice shield.

A bit
later in his scribbling he says that Trump’s policies will have their greatest
effect on “Real people (the poorest and most vulnerable people).” I’m guessing
Mr. Bill doesn’t fall into that category, but, ironically enough, quite a few Trump
supporters do. Many of those in Appalachia, for example, coldly and
calculatedly thrown out of work due solely to liberal’s desire to shut down
mining and extraction industries, were demonstrably vulnerable and are now
poor.

A few
paragraphs after claiming Trump’s “onslaught” will have “immediate” and
dangerous consequences, McKibben states, “The effects will be felt not
immediately but over decades and centuries and milleniums (sic).” Consistency
is overrated, anyway. (In fact, it may well now be frowned upon in college
composition classes as a relic of regressive, white, patriarchal, Western
Civilization).

McKibben
avers that Trump’s policies will accelerate the melting of ice in the polar
regions, ominously stating: “The nations that will be submerged won’t sink
beneath the waves on his watch, but they will sink.” Nations? I thought Obama stopped the rising of the seas.

He then
claims, “It’s time itself that he’s stealing from us…” (Did he filch your
Rolex?). Yet, in conclusion, he contends: ”But even when we vote him out of office,
Trumpism will persist, a dark stratum in the planet’s geological history. In
some awful sense, his term could last forever.”

Daily Trivia Quiz Answer

Today's Answer: Andrew Jackson. ("Poll" got so worked up before the service he apparently had to be removed from the premises, as he was cussing long and loud).

Q) What words appear on the front of the penny, nickel, dime and quarter, alongside the likeness of presidents?

A) "Liberty" and "In God We Trust"

An Ode To Life

Appreciate all you have, as it- and you- will soon be gone. Leave no heartfelt words unspoken, no sweet gesture incomplete, no act of love undone. Love your spouse with passion and abandon, your kids with patience and understanding but also a firm guidance. Love also the truth, no matter how hard. If pursued by enough people with enough courage, it really will set us free.

And don't forget, we didn't ask to be born. We didn't create ourselves. We are not gods. There is a higher power.

Fireworks of the Mind

Write It Up

Whence Shall Come Another?

True Then, True Now

"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."- Winston Churchill

Time Well Wasted

The power lies within your hands To do with what you may But the hourglass is filled with sands Of endless yesterdays